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It was
the morning of August 22, 1985 and
British Airtours, owned by British
Airways, was operating a charter flight,
KT28M, from Manchester, England to
Corfu, located on the islands of Greece.
The Boeing 737 was nearly full with 137
people aboard including six crew
members. The aircraft taxied out to
Manchester's runway 24 and was cleared
for takeoff. The aircraft began its
takeoff roll and passing through
approximately 120kts, the crew heard a
thumping sound. Because they had not yet
reached V1, the captain immediately
rejected the takeoff. Believing that the
sound may have been caused by a tire
blowing out, the captain advised the
first officer against using maximum
braking but the thrust reversers were
deployed. What the flight crew could not
see was that immediately following the
sound, a fire began on the left wing.
Despite the aircraft being stopped on
the airport surface and rescue crews
being immediately dispatched, 55 people
died in the resulting fire.

Burnt Fuselage of KT28M

Examination of the aircraft revealed
that the outer casing of the left
engine's combustion chamber had
ruptured. It had split near the number 9
combuster can and the resulting
expansion of the parts had punctured a
fuel tank access panel on the underside
of the wing. Fuel was then able to leak
directly onto the damaged part of the
engine and ignite. Metallurgical
examination showed that the crack had
been caused by thermal fatigue. After
the initial split, air loads helped to
further open the crack and allow hot
combustion air to further deform the can
until the final split. Investigators did
not believe that the initial crack had
developed simultaneously with the final
split. Examination of the maintenance
recorded showed that the engine, a Pratt
& Whitney JT8D-15, had been previously
repaired for two other cracks in the
same can. British Airways was a
relatively new user of the JT8Ds, having
acquired them after Pratt & Whitney had
removed a limitation on how large a
crack could be and still be repairable.

In addition, it was
found that the welding of the prior
cracks was faulty. Only three prior
cases of casing failure with the JT8D-15
had been reported, but there had been
many reports of other non-damaging
failures occurring. On the engine that
failed, there had been 20 prior reports
of difficulties in just over a year of
service.

Several
factors impacted the death toll in this
accident. Given the available evidence,
the captain's decision to use less than
maximum braking was understandable. Had
there actually been a tire blowout, the
aircraft could have veered off the
runway, set fire to the damaged tire, or
shed a landing gear strut. Also, the
engine fire warning bell and light did
not activate immediately. Use of reverse
thrust, though part of the prescribed
procedure, intensified the fire by
blowing air back over the ruptured wing
section and pushing the fire against the
fuselage. Because of the engine fire and
corresponding failure, oil pressure had
dropped beyond the level at which the
reverse thrust bucket could be
retracted, locking them in the extended
position. Probably the most critical
factor was the captain's decision to
exit the runway and stop on a turn-off.
By exiting the runway to the right, he
inadvertently placed the fuselage
downwind of the burning wing. When the
doors on the right side of the aircraft
were opened, this assisted in allowing
the fire to be blown in through the
fuselage. The fire had completely burned
through the fuselage and had collapsed
the entire tail section within a minute
of the aircraft being stopped.

Examination
of other British Airways aircraft showed
similar problems which led to the
grounding of several 737s until proper
repair could be done. In addition, the
CAA mandated rearrangement of seats in
order to provide better access to
emergency exits and floor-level lighting
to assist passengers in locating exits
in dark or smoke-filled cabins.

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